Day Eight

Today is my eighth day of work in a row - happy happy joy joy. It was a much better idea last week when I was lured by the notion of lots of overtime. Today, facing one last 10 hour shift, I'm not so enthusiastic.

I've been spending a fair bit of time lately listening to the Dark Was The Night compilation. It's the latest offering from the Red Hot Organization.

Back in the day (a mid-90s day, to be precise), Red Hot put out the No Alternative comp. It featured a pretty wide assortment of musicians (Patti Smith, Soundgarden, Pavement)contributing a wide variety of really good tracks to help combat AIDS. My favourites from that disc were and still are Urge Overkill's Take A Walk (the only UO song I've ever really liked) and Nirvana's Verse Chorus Verse (or Sappy depending on who you talk to). It was a great disc and far more interesting than most comps.

Dark Was The Night continues in this vein - a wide assortment of artist contributing some great tracks to help fight AIDS. It's two discs of goodness and I won't even bother trying to list the highlights because there are far too many. Helping a good cause is rarely so easy or enjoyable.

My current favourite track is Antony with Bryce Dessner doing the Dylan tune I Was Young When I Left Home. Antony is an artist I can only handle in measured doses as he soon becomes a little too affected in my books. When he is on, though, he is amazing. This track is a great example of that. While his piano playing is nice, it's something of a revelation to hear him sing this song over a fingerpicked guitar. Of course, that probably says more about my tastes than about his craft, but that's fine with me.

As for Mr. Zimmerman, I hope everyone has circled April 28 on their calendar. Together Through Life looks to be a highlight for 2009.